Institute for Legal Studies

Since 2020, and heightened during the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a spike in reports of hate-motivated activity within universities across Canada. However, the experiences of hate by university students continue to remain under-researched and underdeveloped in Canada. This article presents findings from a Canada-wide survey conducted on the experiences Canadian university students have with hate-motivated activity within in-person and online campus spaces. The focus of this study was to provide an understanding of Canadian university students' experiences with hate, both online and offline, its consequences and possible solutions. By learning about student experiences, we document the varying types of hate students experience on campus, its physical, emotional, and mental impacts, the services and support that exist, and how universities understand and respond to hate. The main conclusions of our study are 1. Most of the students experience hate more than once, more repeatedly online and in multiple university spaces, than they do in-person 2. There are higher instances of students who report experiencing hate based on their ethnicity and attributed race/skin colour, physical appearance, and religion. 3. Hate incidents affect students’ mental health, academic growth, and sense of safety. 4. Students agree that their university can do more to prevent hate, both online and offline. With this data, we aim to increase awareness of the different degrees of hate on university campuses and help improve universities' anti-hate and anti-racism frameworks. • Students experience hate both online and offline in Canadian universities. • Hate is experienced most often based on ethnicity, race, skin colour, and religion. • Experiencing hate impacts students’ mental health, academic growth, and safety. • Students call for stronger prevention and support systems to address gaps. • Article offers policy recommendations to improve anti-hate frameworks.

This study examines the impact of megainfluencers on Consumer-Based Brand Equity (CBBE) in Morocco’s Fast moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), integrating social influence theory, cognitive learning theory, and signaling theory. Through a survey of 400 respondents and Partial Least Squares analysis, the research reveals that mega-influencers’ expertise directly enhances brand equity, while attractiveness and trustworthiness exert indirect effects via brand credibility (expertise and trustworthiness). The findings validate the mediating role of brand credibility, emphasizing that influencer credibility must align with ethical and knowledge-based traits to drive consumer perceptions. Notably, local mega-influencers proved effective, offering cost-efficient alternatives to global celebrities. Theoretical implications include refining the source credibility model by prioritizing expertise over superficial traits and demonstrating how influencers act as credible brand signals in digital ecosystems. Practical implications advise marketers to prioritize influencers with proven expertise, adopt long-term collaborations to sustain credibility, and leverage local influencers for targeted impact.

ABSTRACT The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) does not contain a list of legitimate aims for the lawful restriction of freedom of expression. Article 9 ACHPR only provides a general formulation, leaving a wide margin to interpretation. Nevertheless, legitimate aims analysis is part and parcel of the case-law of the African Commission and Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights. This article investigates how the two African bodies identified and applied legitimate aims for the restrictions of freedom of expression, comparing it with the law and practice of the European and the Inter-American courts. By reviewing all the cases on freedom of expression decided to date, the article shows that the African Court and Commission have filled the gap of Article 9 ACHPR by either borrowing legitimate aims from international instruments, rephrasing existing language in African or international documents, or inventing completely new grounds.

ABSTRACT Child protection supervisors face a difficult task in ensuring high reliability in handling cases of suspected child maltreatment and thus safeguarding children at any time. During the COVID‐19 pandemic, social life and workflow organisation underwent significant changes within a short period. This article presents findings from the project KiZCo (Child Protection During Times of Corona) regarding child protection management in Germany. We investigated the challenges faced by team leaders of child protection units at local child and youth welfare authorities and their solutions to the arising problems in child protection. Qualitative telephone interviews were conducted with team leaders from 40 local child and youth welfare authorities. They were interviewed twice in 2020. Transcripts were analysed using content analysis. In March 2020, following the first lockdown in Germany, team leaders reported challenges in managing staff in a state of uncertainty about appropriate protection measures and fear of infection. Challenges arose mainly due to the actions or inaction of higher‐level management in most local child and youth welfare authorities. By October 2020, team leaders had developed more tools to address the crisis. However, dealing with insufficient support from higher management remained an issue. Team leaders identified high cohesion and motivation of the team as determinants of successful adaptation, which also included finding workarounds and creative solutions for challenges such as impractical guidelines for infection control and a lack of resources. Results indicate the need for crisis preparedness within the child protection system. Moreover, team leaders and staff were burdened by the failure of policy‐makers to include child protection in the crisis strategy. However, high motivation and creativity fostered adaptation and support practices that might have helped to prevent adverse outcomes for children.

Every sixteen minutes, a woman in India is raped. But if the rapist is her husband, the law looks away. Behind closed doors, countless women are forced into silence — their bruises hidden, their pain normalised, and their violation denied a name. This silence has a name too: marital rape. And it remains one of the darkest stains on India’s promise of gender justice. Statistics tell us the scale. Stories tell us the scars. And both reveal the silence the law continues to enforce. “I stopped screaming after a while. It made no difference. In my own house, in my own bed, I became a prisoner. As if my marriage certificate was also a license for him to hurt me every night.” — Anonymous survivor, Delhi, 2019. In the eyes of the Indian law, what she endured was not rape. Exception 2 of Section 375 Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860(n Presently Section 63 of. Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023) still shields men from accountability. What began as a colonial relic has today become a constitutional contradiction — a nation that promises equality, yet denies it within the bedroom.

In Colombia, Law 1116 of 2006 is the special regulation that governs the insolvency regime, in its modalities of reorganization and judicial liquidation, regulated by the regulations compiled in Single Regulatory Decree 1074 of 2025 and the recent Law 2437 of December 12, 2024, which incorporated Legislative Decree 560 of 2020 as permanent legislation, except for articles 1, 3, 7, 15, 16, Section 3 of Paragraph One of article 8 and Title III of the aforementioned decree. As well as Legislative Decree 772 of 2020, except for articles 1, 7, 8, 13, 15, 16, and 17. The judicial liquidation process seeks to protect credit, always under the criterion of adding value, to fulfill its purpose, which is to achieve a prompt and orderly liquidation, seeking to leverage the debtor’s assets for the benefit of its creditors, and seeking to honor the company’s liabilities, up to the extent of the assets. This is done by applying, among others, the principles of equality and objective and subjective universality that govern bankruptcy proceedings. The described purpose is sometimes not achieved when the bankrupt’s assets are used to pay creditors whose contracts remain in effect, even when the insolvency statute mandates the termination of all employment contracts without any judicial or administrative authorization. When this occurs, certain legal concerns arise, including determining whether, given that the company is undergoing judicial liquidation, the right to union association enshrined in the Colombian Political Constitution prevails, or, on the contrary, the right to equality enshrined in the same constitutional legal system should prevail.